Bleach, Vol. 9

It's finally time for Ichigo, Uryu, Chad, Orihime and the cat Yoruichi to leave the living world for the Soul Society. But getting there isn't the least of their problems. Tite Kubo's "Bleach Volume 9: Fourteen Days For Conspiracy" continues our heroes' quest to rescue Rukia from a death sentence, but they run into a new set of obstacles. It's pretty evenly divided between action, slapstick and exposition, but promises to get even better. Ichigo and Co. narrowly make it into the Soul Society, almost losing Uryu along the way. But as soon as they try to infiltrate the Seireitei -- a walled fortress where the Soul Reapers live -- the little gang is met by Jidanbo, a building-sized Gatekeeper with a fez, who has very strong opinions about manners. He also won't let them inside. So for the first time, Ichigo gets to show off the new powers he's acquired -- but after he defeats Jidanbo, he's confronted by a deadly Captain, the snakey Gin Ichimaru. The little gang is left sealed outside the slummy Rukon District, to plan the next move of their mini-invasion. Chad also meets up with an old friend who is living nearby. But after a nasty run-in with some punky boar-riders, Ichigo is reluctant to go see the mysterious Kukaku Shiba, who may be able to get them into the Seireitei. Unfortunately, her brother Ganju is the guy Ichigo fought the previous night -- and even if they don't rip each other apart, Kukaku's method for helping them may be a bit too much! The ninth volume of "Bleach" kicks off an entire arc in the Soul Society, and it's mostly composed of our heroes racing around causing general mayhem. But these chapters are actually all about getting into the fortress in the first place, and finding out more about the Soul Society. Well, it's not as pleasant and peaceful as Rukia led us to believe -- in fact, it has even more weirdos than Ichigo's hometown. As a result, the weirdos generate a lot of comedy, both physical (Ganju skidding across a street on his face, Ichigo landing with his head between his legs) and verbal ("Ichigo, huh? What a cute little name that is..." "IT'S NOT CUTE!... THERE'S NOTHING CUTE ABOUT IT!") And as usual, Tite Kubo does a good job mingling together a hefty dose of poignancy, action, comic slapstick, and wacky characters. Lots of Ichigo fighting powerful opponents and struggling to master new skills, as well as a wall-smashing brawl with Ganju and his boar-riders. But there's also the sweet scene where Chad bonds with Yuichi the parakeet-boy, who is still searching for his mother. This volume also introduces us to some the Shibas who seem to have some nasty history with the Soul Reapers, and Jidanbo the honorable, kindly giant. The Soul Reapers themselves don't make much of an appearance, but we do see the snakey smiling Gin Ichimaru, and a captain named Aizen who is starting to make Renji suspect that something is rotten in the state of the Soul Society. "Bleach Volume 9: Fourteen Days for Conspiracy" is a solid

I thought this volume was good as a filler volume to the whole series. There isn't all that much action or story development, but it is the first volume that takes place in Soul Society, and there is some pretty interesting foreshadowing in this one(I won't spoil it for those who haven't gone that far yet).

The ever expanding universe of Tite Kubo's masterpiece, Bleach, expands again with this awesome volume.

Tite Kubo, Bleach: Fourteen Days for Conspiracy (ViZ, 2001) It's time for Ichigo and his companions to head for the Spirit Realm to free Rukia from her death sentence. That, however, will not be as easy as it seems-- when last we left them, they were running through the barrier-- which will kill them if it touches them. And if they expected things to be any weirder in the spirit realm than things are in the human realm, they have quite a bit of rethinking to do... Bleach is one of the most popular manga going today, and it's easy to see why; Kubo keeps the action coming, but Bleach is less action-intensive than the typical shonen manga, with a number of pauses for reflection and a heavy dose of character development in each issue. An uncommonly strong series, and this is a good entry in it. ****